Those Last Fifteen Minutes…

May have seen this on a FOF post a few weeks back, but worth re-sharing in light of Saturday’s draw:

Fulham have conceded a joint-league high 33% of their goals in the final 15 minutes of games this season.

Not sure who we were tied with, but we’re probably #1 after Saturday as so far this season we’ve conceded 6 goals in the final 15 minutes of games.

Last season we conceded 2 goals in the last 15 mins, all season. In 2009-10 it was 7. In 2008-09, 10; and 2007-08, 16. And, just for good measure, 2006-07 saw us concede 11 (past seasons can also be seen here)

Contrast that with the amount of goals scored in the final 15 minutes. This season, 2. Last, 9. Both 2009-10 and 2008-09 saw 6. And both 2007-08 and 2006-07 saw 11.

To paraphrase Don Hymel, conceding late goals and leads was a hallmark of the Sanchez regime. But, although statistically, Martin’s tenure looks awfully similar to Lawrie’s, it doesn’t feel to me the case. Let’s just look at each of the 6 goals:

• Stoke: Walters ’80, Delap ’86. Worst performance of the season, and Stoke really should have scored earlier.
• Everton: Saha ’90, Rodwell ’90+3. Immediately after Bobby’s awful miss, Saha takes advantage of Hughes’ lack of freshness/fitness (Aaron has played once since then); Rodwell scores with the last kick of the ball.
• Spurs: Defoe ’90+5. Spurred on from Kyle Walker’s fumble recovery (that doesn’t result in a penalty, immediate red card, and the game presumably being tied) Spurs drive down the field and score a wonder goal off the counterattack.
• Arsenal: Vermaelen ’82. The only scorer of the game marauds in the area unmarked to notch the game at 1 a piece. This after Arsenal outshot us 12-6 on, 8-4 off; out-cornered us 13-4; and were down from an own goal.

I’m not going to go back four seasons and count every time we conceded late under Sanchez, but I bet a buck or two that I fully recall us conceding most if not all from a winning position: Wigan, Arsenal, Boro, Villa, and Sunderland immediately spring to mind.

Only yesterday have we conceded a goal from a winning position. We were down against Spurs but playing them off the park. At Stoke no one was winning, or even scoring (though they should have been anyway). We should have put the dagger in Everton, but Bobby Zamora ran afoul of Omar’s famous omen.

Not sure what, if anything, we can glean from this seeming trend.